.

This is not fun at all whatsoever.

Tabius and Ezekiel have been going at each other's throats this past hour. I'm drained from just keeping them apart!

"Can you two not behave like children?!" I yelled at them after they began quarreling after a meager five minutes of peace. "I have never met two people more immature and petty than you two!"

"You're the last person I want to hear that from," Tabius snarled.

"Because it hurts your pride to be scolded by your disappointment of a brother?" I saw Tabius' surprised look, "yeah, I know exactly what you think of me and guess what? I don't care! But if you think I'm just going to deal with your bullshit, you're dead wrong! Get your head out of your ass and get yourself together or you'll lose your spot as the heir because of your incompetence!"

I shoved a shoved a wooden sword onto Tabius's chest. "Now practice. There's no room for you to be acting all high and mighty with such average skills." There were a few sounds of surprise from the others. Tabius's skills were superior to almost everyone else's, so this was a hefty insult to everyone- myself included.

"I'm sorry, Master Zeke. I have business to attend to." I stomped out of the training grounds to the changing room. I stripped myself of my training outfit and put on the pants of my school uniform when someone else came in.

"A-Ah, I'm sorry! I didn't realize someone else was in here!" The male reflexively looked away. Oh shit.

It's the protagonist! Alright, Randall, make him not want to talk to you.

"And who are you?" I asked, annoyed.

"Oh, I'm Hunter," He smiled.

"Hunter who?" I made my tone sharper.

"Hunter Poland, son of-"

"I'm well aware. No need to blabber anything else." I shoved past him. There, that should be enough for him to stay away, right? I hope he isn't one of those overly optimistic protagonists who practically get abused by their peers but still try to befriend them. That'd be extremely annoying.

"Ah, Randall! Could you help us?" A couple of noble ladies struggled to carry a tall stack of papers. Why on earth were they carrying the papers when their servants right behind them could do it for them?

Oh, yeah. Trying to get my attention.

"Sure, where are you going?" I took both stacks from them with ease. God bless these big hands of mine!

"The student council room."

"Alright, I'll drop these papers off. You two should get going."

"Eh?" The ladies noticeably wilted with diappointment. I mentally smirked and strode to the student council room.

"What are you doing here?" The vice-president, some guy I don't know, glowered at me.

"I'm here to drop these off. Some noble ladies were struggling with these."

"I see, put them over there." He motioned to an area with numerous stacks of paper.

"Oh...kay." I whistled in astonishment. That is a LOT of work to be doing.

"Can you do me a favor?" I looked at the Vice-President. What could he want from me?

"Could you find Christopher Aclies?" He sighed, "he's been parading around with the noblewomen and his work has built up to all that." He motioned to the stack of papers. Damn, this is why you shouldn't procrastinate!

"Sure, I'll go take a look around."

"Thank you," he went back to his work.

"Oh yeah, what's your name?"

"Jackie," Jackie didn't tell me his family name, which was considered rude, but I didn't prod him for details. I went out on a search for the womanizer named Christopher, one of the capture targets.

"Urgh, why do I gotta search for him? I swear to god if I walk in on him getting all dirty with a woman I'm going to bleach my eyes." I muttered under my breath. Just the thought of it made me shudder in disgust.

I checked the west wing, empty. The library, cafeteria, garden, tea rooms, and even peered into classrooms. No sign of him anywhere.

"Where the hell could he be?"

"Can I help you?" Another girl came up to me. Geez, where are all of these girls coming from?!

"Do you know where Christopher Aclies is by any chance?" I gave her a polite smile. She reddened and looked flustered.

"W-Well, he took Lady Annabeth and Lady Sylvia to his private office on the third floor." Are you kidding me?

I sighed in annoyance, "good grief. Well, I'm going to drag him out and get him to the student council room whether he has clothes on or not."

"Wh-What?" The girl gaped in shock. I felt my face heat up in embarrassment. Damn, I didn't mean to say that out loud.

"Er, forget what you just heard." I added a quick, "please."

"O-Okay," the girl skittered off. She somehow looked more embarrassed than I did.

I stomped up the stairs to the third floor and had to ask for directions to his private office. A group of five guys accompanied me. It was clear they were curious and wanted to witness whatever happens. After all, no one dared to interrupt Christopher's... sessions.

I pounded on the door, "you have exactly one minute until I break down this door!"

"Go away, Christopher ordered from the other side. I heard him mumble something and the girls giggled. I counted to sixty in my head, though I'll be the first to admit I counted too fast.

"Alright, you had your chance!" I looked at the guys, "get me a sturdy chair from that classroom." They quickly retrieved it. Now the nobles in that class, including the teacher, were watching. I'm guessing that teacher is tired of Christopher's antics by now.

"Back up!" I lifted the heavy chair, got into position, and whammed the chair into the door. The door gave way and a chair leg broke off from the impact. There stood two half naked girls and a shirtless Christopher. The girls squealed and dove for their discarded dresses. Christopher glared at me.

"The hell was that for?!"

"Duty calls!" I saw a rope, why it was there was something I didn't want to think about, and came closer to him. I pinned him down and managed to bind his hands and feet. Albeit with a lot of difficulty from his squirming. I slung him over my shoulder.

"Put me down this instant!" I could hear his pride as a man shatter like glass as everyone present laughed at his predicament.

"No can do. You wouldn't be in this position if you weren't being a manwhore and neglecting your duties as treasurer of the student council."

"Why do you care about what I do?"

"Because it's inconveniencing everyone else you laze ass!" I resisted the urge to throw him over the edge of the rooftop.

I carried him downstairs and walked all the way to the student council room. By now, at least half of the school had seen him in his current state.

"I brought the manwhore!" I kicked open the doors to the student council room. Jackie looked at Christopher, mouth agape in shock. Tabius and Prine Harvard also happened to be there.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Tabius had the same expression as Jackie while Prince Harvard covered his mouth with his hand.

"Pfft!" He laughed, "I never thought I'd see something like this!"

"Well I guess today's your lucky day." I let Christopher slide off my shoulder onto the floor.

"Ouch!" Christopher glared at me, "untie me right now!"

"I got other things to do. Maybe next time you should do your work instead of fooling around in your private office." With one last glance at Jackie, I left the office.

~

A couple days later, the "incidents" began.

While many did find the stunt I pulled amusing, Christopher had many admirers and was the heir to a dukedom unlike me. It was obvious whose side people were going to take.

Tabius, of course, didn't pay attention to it. He couldn't care less since I "brought it onto myself". Not that I wanted his help anyway. There's no way in hell I'd ever put myself in his debt.

The first incident happened during break. A noble lady happened to "spill" her hot tea on my head. If you're wondering how she managed to do that, she was on a balcony and waited until I was right under her on ground level.

Mind you, it was hot tea so I got a burn on my neck, shoulders, and scalp.

Within a week, I recognized a pattern. Fans of Christopher would pull dangerous stunts, in some extreme cases where I could die, and those who weren't fans would do small petty things. All of it was to stay on Christopher's good side.

Father didn't do anything about it because he didn't know anything was wrong. I couldn't rely on him to solve my problems for me. I needed to get through this on my own!

However, I needed to do my work. Work should remain my first priority.

"Hmm, if this is here, then maybe they'd be over here and then this should be directed in this direction." I mumbled, this was battle strategy from my battle technique class. I had a total of ten classes this year, three over the usual number everyone else had.

The reason for that is...

I want to leave the dukedom and make something for myself. Even if it means leaving nobility... which would be a positive if anything.

So I had the five mandatory classes for my grade; english, math, geography, history, and swordsmanship. Ladies have embroidery instead of swordmanship unless requested otherwise. Then I had 5 electives; battle strategy, business, latin (the common language used in every country by commoners and nobility), fief management, and foreign culture studies.

Traveling abroad to a different country appealed to me greatly. Maybe I'd have someone to be my business partner or best friend who'll travel with me. However, maybe that's too much to hope for considering my friendless status as of right now.

"They look so hot studying!" Girls squealed. There was Prince Harvard, Christopher, Ezekiel, Tabius, and Jackie at the other side of the library. Next to the other four, Jackie looked plain.

Prince Harvard had green eyes with golden flecks in them and caramel brown hair. Christopher had steely gray eyes and silver hair. Tabius had dark brown hair like mine and darker blue eyes. His hair was straight unlike my wavy hair. Ezekiel had light purple hair and light grayish blue eyes. Then there was Jackie with his black hair and dark brown eyes.

"Oh, Zachary! Nice to see you could make it." Prince Harvard smiled at a man with dark purple hair and amber eyes. Oh man, it's the fourth capture target.

"I got the materials you requested." Zachary gave Harvard a thick stack of paper and sat down at the table. With a knowing smirk, Harvard tucked the paper into his bag.

"Thank you." They resumed their previous conversations and I focused back onto my own work.

I got through my battle strategy, fief management, geography, and history homework and was about to start on my latin homework when an annoying voice interrupted.

"Ah, Randall! May I sit with you?" Hunter asked loudly. His voice caught the attention of others and I caught a few glares from girls while Prince Harvard's group watched.

I sighed, "go ahead if you must." Hunter happily sat down across from me and took out his work. From a single glance at his paper I could tell it was Latin homework. Oh dear lord please don't tell me he's-

"Could you help me with my latin homework? I'm not very good at it."

"Neither am I. It's one of those things where you have to study a lot and make slow progress." I forced my voice to sound indifferent. Maybe if he realized I wouldn't be much help he'd leave me alone.

"I see, can we study together then?" Dear lord this was hopeless.

"Sure, why not?" Hunter switched to the chair beside me with a wide smile. With great effort, managed to be civil for the next hour. Who knew it took so much energy to be a decent human being?